Chips are becoming smaller and cheaper to produce. This is also the case for chips incorporating radio frequency (RF) modules, which are able to transmit identification signals to receivers that are close enough to receive the RF signals. This type of chips can e.g. be used in supermarkets, where products equipped with such a RF chip can be scanned automatically when passing a check out point. This quickens and eases the payment procedures at the check out point, because the individual products can stay in the basket and are scanned very quickly. The only thing left to do is pay for the products.
In an article from BT Group (see http://www.btplc.com/Innovationandtechnology/Insights/IanPearson/superstores.htm) the following scenario is given: “Very cheap chips will be built into many things around us in the future. Simple chips in product packaging have already been proposed to enable automatic billing, removing the need for queues at checkouts, or eventually even for the checkout at all. Customers may just load up the trolley and leave, the chips signal to the store computer along with the customer's smart card. Customers would have their accounts automatically debited. Other chips would record information on use-by dates and product type so that home electronics can determine what is available for lunch and what needs replaced on the next shopping trip.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,461B1 discloses an electronic identity device such as a transponder being incorporated in a container for collecting waste. A collecting vehicle is provided with appropriate reading and recording means enabling information to be interchanged with the transponder. The collection vehicle can be organized to weigh each container while it is emptying it so as to evaluate the quantity of waste collected there from. The total mass of waste collected during a given period can be stored in the transponder so as to make it possible to bill the user in proportion to the quantity of waste collected as opposed to charging a fixed sum. The transponder can also be useful in managing maintenance operations on the container.
Existing usages of RF chips that send RF signals make the assumption that the RF chip or the product enclosing the RF chip is in the power of the same entity as the device receiving the RF signals. There are scenarios thinkable where this is not the case. In these scenarios the owner of the RF chip may want to receive financial compensation for services offered, i.e. sending RF signals via RF chips. There are no solutions to technically enable this.